history of forestry 1912-1920

1912 

 Congress begins several years of debate and hearings on the question of whether or not to create a National Park Service. Congress passes legislation to amend the Withdrawal Act, opening withdrawn lands to mining of "metalliferous minerals" and adding California to the list of states where National Forests may not be created or enlarged without  Congressional approval.  John Muir publishes The Yosemite, an eloquent and loving portrait which 

 concludes with an impassioned plea for the preservation of Hetch Hetchy.  Concern for "human conservation" and early attempts by American cities to cope  with the growing problem of urban air pollution are reflected in the material  compiled by Samuel B. Flagg for a U.S. Bureau of Mines publication, City Smoke  Ordinances and Smoke Abatement.  Public interest in conservation issues is reflected in the publication of two 

 valuable bibliographies: the Library of Congress's Select List of References  on the Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, and the 

 Department of the Interior's List of National Park Publications.  1913  Debate over the fate of Hetch Hetchy continues in the national press 

 throughout the year, along with intensive campaigning to save Hetch Hetchy on  the part of conservation and nature-related organizations (such as the Sierra  Club and the Appalachian Mountain Club) and concerned individuals throughout  the country; the arguments made by the opposing sides in the campaign are  exemplified by such works as John Muir's pamphlet "Let Everyone Help to Save  the Famous Hetch Hetchy Valley and Stop the Commercial Destruction Which  Threatens Our National Parks" (1911), Isaac Branson's pamphlet "Yosemite  Against Corporation Greed; Shall Half of Yosemite National Park Be Destroyed  by San Francisco?" (1909), and Martin Vilas's pamphlet "Water and Power for  San Francisco from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park" (1915). On  September 3 and December 6, the House and Senate, respectively, pass the Raker  Act, granting San Francisco permission to dam Hetch Hetchy, and President  Woodrow Wilson signs the bill into law on December 19; though a defeat for  preservation-minded conservationists, the controversy has brought the  preservationist movement to a new level of maturity, and the conservation  movement as a whole to a new level of importance and awareness in national  life; the loss of Hetch Hetchy now galvanizes the campaign to create an 

 independent Federal bureau to protect and care for the national parks.  William Temple Hornaday, now head of the New York Zoological Park, publishes  Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation, "one of the first  books wholly devoted to endangered wild animals" (in the words of historian  Stephen Fox); the book is written to accompany Hornaday's founding of the  Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund, an organization devoted to campaigning for  wildlife protection throughout the nation.  Congress passes what is known as the Migratory Bird Act or Weeks-McLean Act,  declaring all migratory and insectivorous birds to be within the custody and  protection of the Federal government; this is eventually superseded by the  Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.  Congress passes a provision of the Federal Tariff Act prohibiting the  importation of many kinds of wild bird feathers, which had been extensively  used for women's hats; this measure is the result of a long public campaign by  many conservationists, especially the nation's Audubon Societies, against the  use of wild bird plumage in the millinery trade.  The National Conservation Exposition is held in Knoxville, Tennessee, in  September and October, with the support of local and national business and  political leaders, including Gifford Pinchot and WJ McGee, both of whom serve  as advisors; though regional in emphasis, this is the major public effort in  conservation education in this era, an ambitious attempt to educate the public  into an understanding of conservation issues, and especially "to teach farmers  and timber-land owners the necessity for general co-operation if we are to  preserve the forests, streams, and soils of the country," in the words of the  Exposition's chronicler; the Exposition reveals how thoroughly conservationism  was construed as an issue of civic and even religious virtue in this era, and  the sometimes uneasy alliance of business, civic, governmental, and religious  leadership which gave early conservationism its remarkable breadth of support. 

 A descriptive commemorative album, The First Exposition of Conservation and  its Builders: An Official History of the National Conservation Exposition...,  edited by W.M. Goodman, is published in 1914.  Joseph Knowles publishes his best-selling Alone in the Wilderness, an account 

 of his probably fraudulent experience living "as Adam lived" off the Maine  wilderness; its popularity reflects Americans' turn-of-the-century 

 preoccupation with the relationship of wilderness to human nature and the  American character; while Knowles's almost formulaic references to the 

 importance of wilderness as a resource for human health, spirituality, and art  reveal how completely many of the essential ingredients of the conservation  ethos have permeated American popular culture. 

 1914 

 President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Papago Saguaro National  Monument, Arizona. 

 John Muir dies in California at the age of 76. 

 1915 

 Congress passes a bill establishing Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.  President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Dinosaur National 

 Monument, Utah.  Cornell horticulture professor Liberty Hyde Bailey, already well known for his  efforts in the nature-study and country-life movements, publishes The Holy  Earth, a pioneering attempt to establish an ethic for the man/nature  relationship which directly influences Aldo Leopold's development of an  ecologically-based "land ethic" in the 1930s and '40s.  Overriding the longstanding opposition of Gifford Pinchot and many of his  associates in the utilitarian wing of the conservation movement, the New York  Board of Trade and Transportation (which was concerned about loss of water for  the Erie Canal) and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks  (which was dominated by wealthy landowners in the Park region) succeed in  having a permanent prohibition on timber cutting in the Adirondack Park  incorporated into the new New York State constitution of this year.  Under pressure from livestock owners' associations, Congress appropriates  $125,000 to enable the Bureau of Biological Survey to begin large-scale  killing of predator animals, such as wolves and coyotes, regarded as injurious  to sheep and cattle.  The Ecological Society of America is founded "for the purpose of giving unity  to the study of organisms in relation to environment, as a means of furthering  intercourse between persons who are approaching widely different groups of  organisms from closely related points of view, for the stimulation of  ecological research, and to assist the development of the utilities which may  be served by ecological principles." 

 1916 

 Congress passes the National Park Service Act, creating the National Park  Service within the Department of the Interior with the support of Interior 

 Secretary Franklin K. Lane; Stephen T. Mather is its first Director.  Congress passes a bill establishing Hawaii National Park, Hawaii, and a bill 

 establishing Lassen Volcanic National Park, California.  President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Sieur de Monts National  Monument on Mount Desert Island, Maine, on lands conveyed to the United States  by a private citizens' group, the Hancock County Trustees of Public 

 Reservations; and a Proclamation establishing Capulin Mountain National  Monument, New Mexico.  Frederic E. Clements publishes Plant Succession: An Analysis of the  Development of Vegetation, a seminal work of ecological science, establishing  a dynamic model of species succession toward an eventual "climax" equilibrium under the influence of climate and other factors in a given habitat; this work  has profound implications for the future development of conservationist  thought.  John Charles Van Dyke publishes The Mountain: Renewed Studies in Impressions  and Appearances, one of his series of books exploring and celebrating the  distinctive aesthetic properties of various wild landscapes in elegant and  perceptive detail; Van Dyke's work illuminates Americans' increasingly  sophisticated pleasure in scenic beauty in an era when the preservationist  dimension of conservationism achieved permanent importance. 

 1917 

 Congress passes a bill establishing Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska.  The last and widest-ranging of the series of four National Parks Conferences  meets in Washington to explore the role of the parks in American life and the  complex challenges facing the new National Park Service; the conference's  Proceedings, rich in implication for the parks' cultural, economic, and  scientific history, are published later in the year. 

 1918 

 Congress approves the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which implements a  1916 Convention (between the U.S. and Britain, acting for Canada) for the  Protection of Migratory Birds, and establishes responsibility for  international migratory bird protection.  President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Zion National Monument,  Utah, incorporating Mukuntuweap National Monument, and a Proclamation  establishing Katmai National Monument, Alaska. 

 1919 

 Congress passes a bill establishing Lafayette National Park, Maine,  superseding Sieur de Mots National Monument, as the first National Park east 

 of the Mississippi; it is renamed Acadia National Park in 1929.  Congress passes a bill establishing Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 

 superseding Grand Canyon National Monument, and a bill establishing Zion  National Park, Utah, superseding Zion National Monument. 

 President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Scotts Bluff National  Monument, Nebraska.  Stephen A. Forbes, a biologist whose work on the ecology of freshwater ponds  has important implications for the future of conservationist thought, and  Robert Earle Richardson publish Some Recent Changes in Illinois River Biology,  a brief study which raises disturbing questions about the complex impact of  reclamation engineering projects and sewage disposal on riverine biology; this  work anticipates the kinds of environmental issues which will increasingly  preoccupy conservationists later in the century.  The National Parks Association (renamed the National Parks and Conservation  Association in 1970) is founded in Washington, D.C. by a group of public  officials, scientists, educational leaders, and other prominent citizens,  under the leadership of retiring Park Service Education Division chief Robert  Sterling Yard, and with the personal and financial support of Park Service  Director Stephen T. Mather; the new organization's purpose is to educate the  public about and through the national parks, to generate support for the  parks' growth and protection, and to encourage their responsible enjoyment by  greater numbers of visitors. 

 1920 

 Congress passes the Federal Water Power Act, creating a Federal Power  Commission with extensive authority over waterways and the construction and  use of water power projects. 

 The Ecological Society of America begins publication of its quarterly journal,  Ecology.